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User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
Description of problem:
Trying to install RHEL 4 on a Dell PowerEdge 750 - with an external USB 2.0 DVD-R drive, using CD-R media. When completing initial setup with Disk 1 and placing Disk 2 into drive, process errors indicating the media is corrupt.
In acuality it was unable to mount the media since it was attempting to mount /tmp/sda0 rather than /tmp/cdrom thus causing the error.
A work around is to go into the Virtual Console (ALT-DEL-F2) and perform the mount by hand then go back to the Interface (ALT-DEL F7) and allow the retry of the Disk 2.
This seems to allow the install to proceed to completion.
Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
How reproducible:
Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Use CD media with a USB DVD device
2.
3.
Actual Results: You get frustrated... and wish you paid the extra 200 bucks for a CD drive on the system.
Expected Results: It should install and make you feel rewarded that you can do simple tasks
Additional info:
This should be addressed, installations are the first thing a new user sees, perceptions are everything!!!

not at this point -- I completed the install using method described above, and
moved on getting the system to production.
Its easy I'm sure to recreate - just use a server with a external DVD drive and
the CD media. The same issue reproduced on 3 different drives, until I went
Duh! and figured out what it was really complaining about.

Our situation shows the problem is deeper than this. I'm trying to install on
an IBM HS20 blade (dual Xeon 2.8G HT), with several SCSI devices available on a
SAN, causing the (usb-storage) CD-ROM device to be /dev/sdm. The bladecenter
shares its management and IO modules to blades through USB interfacing. In
this case I make sure both are assigned to the blade I'm installing on before
power-up.
I should also note that there have been no installation issues of this sort on
any of the EL3 installs I've done on these systems, and that the disks are read
fine otherwise by the systems using the shared IO tray, and have been used to
install on a system with a non-USB CDROM drive.
During initialisation it loads the usb-storage module, loads the qla2300 module
and apparently again the usb-storage module, or perhaps further related
modules. I can choose the NFS option for source media, no problem, and the
install works after a fashion (different bug report which has little to do with
this) - definitely no problems doing the installation itself anyway. However,
choosing the CDROM install option, results in the following message, headed "CD
Not Found":
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD was not found in any of your CDROM drives.
Please insert the Red Hat Enterprise Linux CD and press OK to retry.
If I hit OK, the message is refreshed immediately after letting the "ok button"
up with no change.
I have tried switching the IO tray to another blade and back, but all that does
is unload the USB module, and re-load it (as it should). Nothing about the
appearance of the new drive letter (sdm) though.

Indeed, U1 Beta works to resolve our issue with the usb-storage CDROM too.
However, I believe one of our guys tried to use the floppy drive at boot
(kickstart install) and although it detected the floppy, it failed to recognise
that a disk was in the drive. Probably a seperate issue.